Medium access control protocol data unit overhead improvements

1. An apparatus comprising:

a controller configured to:

pack a plurality of Service Data Units (SDUs) from a plurality of connections associated with a Mobile Station (MS) into a single Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU),

generate a Generic MAC Header (GMH), and

generate, for each SDU, an associated Extended Packing Sub-Header (EPSH);

select a single form of error protection to be used to protect at least a portion of the MAC PDU, the selecting being performed according to a priority of: 1) Hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARM), 2) cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and 3) Header Check Sequence (HCS);

apply group allocation to the MAC PDU, and mask the form of error protection with a basic connection identifier (CID) associated with a mobile station (MS) associated with the MAC PDU; and

apply the selected form of error protection to the MAC PDU;

a memory configured to store the MAC PDU; and

a wireless transceiver configured to transmit the MAC PDU.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein only the EPSHs associated with a first SDU of a group of SDUs further includes:

a Connection Index (CI) field that indicates the connection associated with the group of SDUs; and

an Encryption Key Sequence (EKS) field that indicates the encryption key used to encrypt the group of SDUs.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the controller is configured to:

use an error correction scheme for a first connection of the plurality of connections associated with a Mobile Station (MS), and use the error correction scheme for the GMH, any subheaders before the SDU(s) associated with the first connection, and the SDU(s) associated with the first connection.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the controller is configured to:

use the selected form of error protection for a post-first connection of the plurality of connections associated with a Mobile Station (MS), and use the selected form of error protection for the SDU(s) associated with the post-first connection and the EPSH associated with the SDU(s).

5. An apparatus comprising:

a controller configured to:

determine which of a plurality of forms of error protection are enabled for a connection including Hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARQ), cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and Header Check Sequence (HCS);

generate a Medium Access Control (MAC) Packet Data Unit (PDU);

select a single form of error protection to be used to protect at least a portion of the MAC PDU, the selecting being performed according to a priority of: 1) HARQ, 2) CRC, and 3) HCS;

apply group allocation to the MAC PDU, and mask the form of error protection with a basic connection identifier (CID) associated with a mobile station (MS) associated with the MAC PDU; and

apply the selected form of error protection to the MAC PDU;

a memory configured to store the MAC PDU; and

a wireless transceiver configured to transmit the MAC PDU.

6. An apparatus comprising:

a controller configured to:

generate a Medium Access Control (MAC) Packet Data Unit (PDU) that includes an abridged Generic MAC Header (GMH),

wherein the GMH is abridged by leaving out at least one field that can be derived from a connection identifier for the MAC PDU wherein the at least one field is a non-connection identifier field;

select a single form of error protection to be used to protect at least a portion of the MAC PDU, the selecting being performed according to a priority of: 1) Hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARM), 2) cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and 3) Header Check Sequence (HCS);

apply group allocation to the MAC PDU, and mask the form of error protection with a basic connection identifier (CID) associated with a mobile station (MS) associated with the MAC PDU; and

apply the selected form of error protection to the MAC PDU;

a memory configured to store the MAC PDU; and

a wireless transceiver configured to transmit the MAC PDU.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the controller is configured to:

map the connection associated with a Mobile Station (MS) to a security association (SA);

use the connection identifier (CID) of the GMH to indicate that the MAC PDU is to be encrypted; and

generate a GMH that does not include the encryption control (EC) field.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the controller is configured to:

determine whether or not to use an error correction scheme for MAC PDU(s) associated with a service flow during the creation of the service flow;

associate a connection identifier (CID) with the service flow;

use the CID associated with a MAC PDU to indicate whether or not an error protection scheme is to be used to generate the MAC PDU; and

generate a GMH that does not include the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) indicator (CI) field.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the controller is configured to:

determine a size of Fragment Sequence Numbers (FSNs) for MAC PDU(s) associated with a service flow during the creation of the service flow;

associate a connection identifier (CID) with the service flow;

use the CID associated with a MAC PDU to indicate the size of the FSN to be used to generate the MAC PDU; and

generate a GMH that does not include the Extended Type (ET) field within the Type field of the GMH.

10. A method comprising:

packing a plurality of Service Data Units (SDUs) from a plurality of connections associated with a Mobile Station (MS) into a single Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU);

generating an Extended Packing Sub-Header (EPSH) with a Generic MAC Header (GMH);

generating, for each SDU, an associated EPSH;

selecting a single form of error protection to be used to protect at least a portion of the MAC PDU, the selecting being performed according to a priority of: 1) Hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARM), 2) cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and 3) Header Check Sequence (HCS);

applying group allocation to the MAC PDU, and mask the form of error protection with a basic connection identifier (CID) associated with a mobile station (MS) associated with the MAC PDU;

applying the selected form of error protection to the MAC PDU; and

wirelessly transmitting the MAC PDU.

11. The method of claim 10

wherein only the EPSHs associated with a first SDU of a group of SDUs includes:

a Connection Index field (CI) that indicates the connection of the group of SDUs, and

a Encryption Key Sequence (EKS) field that indicates the encryption key used to encrypt the group of SDUs.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein packing comprises:

using the selected form of error protection for a first connection of the plurality of connections associated with a Mobile Station (MS), and using the selected form of error protection for the GMH, any subheaders before the SDU(s) associated with the first connection, and the SDU(s) associated with the first connection.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein packing comprises:

using the selected form of error protection for a post-first connection of the plurality of connections associated with a Mobile Station (MS), and using the selected form of error protection for the SDU(s) associated with the post-first connection and the EPSH associated with the SDU(s).

14. A method comprising:

determining which of a plurality of forms of error protection are enabled for a connection including Hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARM), cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and Header Check Sequence (HCS);

generating a Medium Access Control (MAC) Packet Data Unit (PDU);

selecting a single form of error protection to be used to protect at least a portion of the MAC PDU, the selecting being performed according to a priority of: 1) HARQ, 2) CRC, and 3) HCS;

applying group allocation to the MAC PDU, and mask the form of error protection with a basic connection identifier (CID) associated with a mobile station (MS) associated with the MAC PDU;

apply the selected form of error protection to the MAC PDU; and

transmit the MAC PDU.

15. A method comprising:

generating a Medium Access Control (MAC) Packet Data Unit (PDU) that includes an abridged Generic MAC Header (GMH),

wherein the GMH is abridged by leaving out at least one field that can be derived from a connection identifier for the MAC PDU wherein the at least one field is a non-connection identifier field;

selecting a single form of error protection to be used to protect at least a portion of the MAC PDU, the selecting being performed according to a priority of: 1) Hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARM), 2) cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and 3) Header Check Sequence (HCS);

applying group allocation to the MAC PDU, and mask the form of error protection with a basic connection identifier (CID) associated with a mobile station (MS) associated with the MAC PDU;

applying the selected form of error protection to the MAC PDU; and

wirelessly transmitting the MAC PDU.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein generating includes:

mapping the connection associated with a Mobile Station (MS) to a security association (SA);

using the connection identifier (CID) of the GMH to indicate that the MAC PDU is to be encrypted; and

generating a GMH that does not include the encryption control (EC) field.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein generating includes:

determining whether or not to use an error correction scheme for MAC PDU(s) associated with a service flow during the creation of the service flow;

associating a connection identifier (CID) with the service flow;

using the CID associated with a MAC PDU to indicate whether or not an error protection scheme is to be used to generate the MAC PDU; and

generating a GMH that does not include the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) indicator (CI) field.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein generating includes:

determining a size of Fragment Sequence Numbers (FSNs) for MAC PDU(s) associated with a service flow during the creation of the service flow;

associating a connection identifier (CID) with the service flow;

using the CID associated with a MAC PDU to indicate the size of the FSN to be used to generate the MAC PDU; and

generating a GMH that does not include the Extended Type (ET) field within the Type field of the GMH.